DeSoto volunteers 'rock' as they roll tree wrapping

Don Shepard packs magnolia seedlings that will go to 2,336 third-graders at 14 schools in DeSoto County Thursday at the the DeSoto County Soil and Water Conservation District facility.

Don Shepard packs magnolia seedlings that will go to 2,336 third-graders at 14 schools in DeSoto County Thursday at the the DeSoto County Soil and Water Conservation District facility.

"Some are baggers, some are twisters, and some are counters," says Ray Laughter of his crew of 20 preparing 2,336 magnolia seedlings, assembly-line fashion on two long tables, for distribution to third-graders next week at 14 DeSoto County schools.

Amid the funny stories and ribbing Thursday, the volunteers at the Olive Branch Parks Department maintenance shed are trying to plant a love of nature and environmental awareness in the fertile minds of youths.

"Oh, we love the camaraderie, all the catching up we get to do," said Bettie Pruitt of Southaven. "But it's not work — it's fun, and it's for the kids. But oh, we do like to gossip."

"The men, too," added Joyce Haslip of Olive Branch, like Pruitt a veteran tree-wrapper and "twofer": achievers of Master Gardener and Master Urban Forester status from the Mississippi State Extension Service.

Indeed, the guys assisting Laughter, the county's Environmental Services manager, dropped a lot of names, sports assessments and political guesses as they plopped magnolia seedlings in plastic bags, twisted them at the root to squeeze out air, and counted them up for placement in a waiting box earmarked for a particular school.

Someone got a buzz going on the proposition that pine trees interfere with cellphone reception. "That's a new one on me," said Will McNeer, the party's "host" as Olive Branch parks director. (He also prepared the chili and hot dogs that rewarded a job well done.)

What isn't new is the annual Third-Grade Tree Program of the DeSoto County Soil and Water Conservation District. The school program was sown more than 30 years ago. This was the 10th tree-wrapping for Haslip, longtime Olive Branch City Beautiful chair and former alderwoman, and the first for Carey Redding, an environmental specialist in the county office of Environmental Services, of which Laughter is manager.

Terry Abbott of Walls, a "Master Gardener in training," was especially excited: She has a son in the third grade and "he's into the earth. He has a swing in the tree, he'd climb it if he could, and he's always bringing apple seeds and orange seeds home. He wants me to plant them."

At this session, Laughter was filling in for the usual coordinator, soil district education specialist Meleiah Tyus, on maternity leave with the newest addition to her own family tree, son Bryce.

"The Board of Supervisors chose a great leader and dedicated employee when they chose Ray to lead Environmental Services — he and these great volunteers rock," said Tyus from home.

Laughter also plants. He says the tree program is a personal experience spanning generations.

"I remember getting four pines when I was in the third grade and I planted them," said Laughter. "One didn't survive the ice storm of 1994, but the other three are still standing at my mom and dad's place off Cedar View," outside Olive Branch in the Lewisburg area. "That was back in 1985, and wow, they're 40 feet tall now."

Now, he said, "we have my kids' trees planted in my yard." There's the pine planted four years ago by daughter Oakley, now 12, and the magnolia planted last year by her younger sister Taylor. The program's switch to magnolias, the Mississippi state tree, was made when Tyus joined the soil district office three years ago; this year's seedlings were obtained with district funds from a nursery in Warren County, Tenn.

Next week, Monday through Thursday, volunteers will distribute the trees at the schools with a kid-friendly program on what trees mean and how to plant them.

School presenters include Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson, who'll be at Hernando Hills on Monday, and Dr. Joy Anderson, Extension Service director for DeSoto, at DeSoto Central on the same day. On Tuesday, Haslip will be at Lake Cormorant, and Laughter at Southern Baptist Educational Center.

"We want to make sure our future DeSoto County leaders are well educated on how important our trees are to preserving our beautiful, natural landscape, and also how many different everyday products are derived from trees," said Tyus.

The third-graders will learn that toothpaste, or its ingredients, literally grows on trees.